Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have a unique history, mission, and role in educating underrepresented and underserved students in the United States. In light of the recent uptick in institutional closures across sectors, understanding the factors associated with college survival for HBCUs is critical. Using linear probability…

Rural school success is crucial for the Nebraska education system. Without rural schools, many students and families would be without access to high quality educational opportunities. Despite the importance of rural education, the number of rural schools in Nebraska continues to decline, and "one thing is clear from academic research on rural…

This article seeks to present the perspectives of three school leaders in one rural primary school in the English East Midlands, who, when faced with closure due to a falling student numbers, decided to offer and operate a flexi-schooling model of educational provision. We aim to find out, through a theoretical model of systems school leadership,…

Mountain View College is a rural 2-year and 4-year degree granting school in the state of West Virginia that is plagued by declining enrollment, unstable financial assets, and minimum resources. In addition, the college exists in a community plagued by high rates of poverty and minimal racial diversity. Such traits mirror the challenges other…

Internationally and domestically, depopulation and the decrease of student enrollment caused are becoming an issue of interest in higher education, especially in regions such as east Europe, south Europe, and East Asia. This article analyzes strategies of Japanese universities to tackle depopulation issues in Japan. The 18-year-old bracket…

This paper intends to describe the recent experience of a small, rural, two-year technical college. After four decades of success, the college had found itself in a difficult situation with a substantial loss in enrollment and diminished state and local support, coupled with low campus employee morale. In response, the college team closed ranks…

The paper discusses local responses to schooling policy in the context of the uneven differentiation and sharp social polarisation of the Hungarian countryside. Counter-urbanisation, on the one hand, has brought affluent urban middle classes to suburban spaces, on the other hand, peripheral areas are becoming impoverished with high unemployment,…

This case study focuses on a four-district collaborative that shared services for more than 15 years in an effort to retain rural schools and thereby to preserve community identity. With population losses in the four districts and suburbanization in the largest, the collaborative made extensive use of distance education in addition to itinerant…

This paper reviews 25 years of research on small rural schools in England, in a period of unprecedented educational reform, and shift in government policy on small schools from persistent threat of closure through a period of a centrally funded "presumption against closure" in the early 2000s. It notes a dearth of funded or peer-reviewed…

This paper reviews research on small rural primary schools in Finland and analyses it under three thematic foci: the relationship between the local rural school and the surrounding community, the small rural primary school as a learning environment, and the teachers' profession in this context. Over 30% of Finnish primary schools are small rural…

At Midway High School (Kansas) and other small schools of the Midwest and West, eight-man football is the biggest show in town, allowing participation by many students and rousing community support for the school. Supporters say the teams are essential to school and community identity. In Kansas, however, special state funding that keeps small…

Dual superintendency is a popular tack in rural America for the preservation of proud communities. The job is not for someone who wants to coast. There are two budgets to develop and monitor, two school boards, two sets of priorities. Keeping everyone in two school districts satisfied is more than a full-time occupation. Other school communities…

This paper uses data from a survey of K-12 unit schools to fashion a measure of small school sustainability and relate it to variables pertinent to the rural context. Drawing on definitions of sustainable development and sustainable agriculture, this study proposes sustainability as a concept appropriate to schooling in general, and to small rural…

One school in Canada's Exemplary Schools Project, Grandy's River Collegiate, is a rural high school threatened with closure because it does not meet Newfoundland's new "viability" requirements (primarily involving school size). Compares characteristics of several types of schools, and suggests that schools such as Grandy's are suited to…

Discusses academic discourses of "rural,""sustainability," and "community" and approaches to these concepts in New Zealand government policy. Examines social sustainability issues in the Mangakahia Valley, New Zealand: urban-rural migration of "lifestyle" newcomers and Maori returning to ancestral lands,…